Maintenance on a SBS 2003 server

Our SBS 2003 server is acting sluggish. It's SBS 2003 service pack 2 with 4GB of ram, Pentium D 3GHZ. What I am asking is, is there regular Maintenance I can do such as defrags, disk cleanup, etc...? I can manage maintenance on a desktop fine but I have never done it on a server and don't want mess anything up. The old IT company we had suggested not running disk cleanup but I am not sure why. Any help is appreciated.

Are your exchange databases getting too large for SBS?
A duplex mismatch or network issue could make the server to appear sluggish as well.
Are there any processes that are using 100% of your CPU time?

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The number one offender in this senario is the antivirus aplication. THis box is a DC which runs Exchange ans SQL on 4 GB or RAM. Most antivirus take up 1 GB or ram. (I wont mention names SEP). That leaves three GB. SQL and Exchange take a GB each. THis leaves you one GB to run your whole enterprise!!!! This is a crude example but server to explain what you need to do. move to a newer 2008/8GB setup or go with a hardware firewall and remove 1 GB of consumed RAM. There are many other reasons for the issue. I am just putting forward the number one offender...

Wow... is there a reason you're not updating the server? You're missing service packs and updates... And have other issues, but I'd resolve those first. BEFORE applying any of them, MAKE A FULL BACKUP.

And lastly, while it SHOULD be running acceptably to the users, keep in mind that SBS 2003 is closing in on 8 years old... and is now TWO versions out of date. One of the great failings is that it's 32 bit only which limits you to 4 GB of RAM (or less recognized).

There are no DNS problems that I am aware of. As far as the updates go, they are set to automatic and I know updates have been installed before so I am not sure why those are missed. It actually is not running that bad. Sometimes when on the server it seems sluggish, for example opening the properties to a user in AD or launching backup exec. where can i check virtual memory utilization?

Also we were paying a company a lot of money to take of this server, they were coming in 4 to 8 times a year for server maintenance. My assumption was that they were not doing a very good job which is why I chose to not sign a new contract with them so now it is my hands.

The SBS service pack is not delivered via Windows Update as far as I'm aware. And neither is Exchange if you don't explicitly get it. And there are other updates too. Go to Windows Update and VERIFY you have all the updates. THEN, download and install the SBS Service Pack 1 (this is NOT the same as WINDOWS Server 2003 Service Pack 1) and download and install Exchange 2003 Service Pack 1.

I would agree that the consulting company was not doing a great job... but either replace them or go to training so you know what needs to be done.

Before I would start running clean up tools, I would utilize both of these. The event logs are a great resource, but if you are not familiar with the codes and what they mean, a graphical interface like either of the above will get you started.

@leew do you have any suggestions for training? I have kind of a mixed background which is probably why I fit into this position well. We are a small nonprofit with about 10 employees. Anything computer related falls under my job description, handling the internal network, website development etc...Lately I have been spending 100% of my time on building our new website so it is tough to keep up with server/network maintenance and we can't afford a consultant right now. I went to school a few years back and I have my A+ and Net+ certs. Really expert-exchange is my only means of support right now. So if you have any suggestions on further training please let me know. Thanks

If you can't afford a class, then cheaper solutions include Books, and playing around with a NON-production install, installing a few times to get a feel for how it's installed and SHOULD be setup and whatnot. If you're not using TechSoup.org, see if you qualify - and if you do, take the money you saved from it and buy a TechNet PLus Direct subscription which should get you licenses for testing and learning Windows. Also, Microsoft makes training videos and things like that available on Technet's web site for free and I believe you can register to be a registered partner which gets you access to partner training videos.